beginning to give to the cultivation of goodwill, perhaps, as much
attention as we give to our clothes or our tobacco. If a novice sets out
to embrace the whole of humanity in his goodwill, he will have even
less success than a young man endeavouring to fall in love with four
sisters at once; and his daily companions--those who see him eat his
bacon and lace his boots and earn his living--will most certainly have a
rough time of it. * * * No! It will be best for you to centre your
efforts on quite a small group of persons, and let the rest of humanity
struggle on as well as it can, with no more of your goodwill than it has
hitherto had.

In choosing the small group of people, it will be unnecessary for you to
go to Timbuktu, or into the next street or into the next house. And, in
this group of people you will be wise, while neglecting no member of the
group, to specialise on one member. Your wife, if you have one, or your
husband? Not necessarily. I was meaning simply that one who most
frequently annoys you. He may be your husband, or she may be your wife.
These things happen. He may be your butler. Or you may be his butler.
She may be your daughter, or he may be your father, and you a charming
omniscient girl of seventeen wiser than anybody else. Whoever he or she
may be who oftenest inspires you with a feeling of irritated
superiority, aim at that person in particular.

The frequency of your early failures with him or her will show you how
prudent you were not to make an attempt on the whole of humanity at
once. And also you will see that you did well not to publish your
excellent intentions. If nobody is aware of your striving, nobody will
be aware that you have failed in striving. Your successes will appear
effortless, and most important of all, you will be free from the horrid
curse of self-consciousness. Herein is one of the main advantages of not
wearing a badge. Lastly, you will have the satisfaction of feeling that,
if everybody else is doing as you are, the whole of humanity is being
attended to after all. And the comforting thought is that very probably,
almost certainly, quite a considerable number of people are in fact
doing as you are; some of them--make no doubt--are doing a shade better.
I now come to the actual method of cultivating goodwill.

SEVEN

THE GIFT OF ONESELF

Children divide their adult acquaintances into two categories--those who
sympathise with them in the bizarre and tryi